John and other Tweets,

You mentioned Anna's being non-migratory and in general I think everyone would mostly agree on this. However, here on the east slope of the Cascades, specifically Yakima Valley, birders have been noticing more and more Anna reports each year in the fall with some staying around in to December. These sightings seem to have peaked in the last 2-3 years. We don't know for certain that breeding isn't increasing over here as well, but these birds show up in fall hummingbird migration and generally are not seen in the spring or early summer, suggesting that the birds are not locals. Also supporting this is that most of the birds seem to be immatures, I hear very few reports of adult males, though immatures and females would be difficult to tell apart for most feeder watchers.

So this suggests some movement of the species. Where they are coming from and what is driving the increase of sightings are interesting questions.

Anyhow my two cents on an interesting subject. Thanks for doing a well written summation of the previous thread.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA